(Seguin) — A Schertz area contractor, who is also the husband of a local elected official, turned himself into authorities at the Guadalupe County Jail last week, after he was indicted on felony charges of misappropriation of fiduciary or financial property between $150,000 and $300,000, and theft of property valued between $150,000 and $300,000.
Josh Balk, of Balk Construction Services, has since been released on bond. Balk, 40, is the husband of Guadalupe County Clerk Linda Balk.
The stories regarding his business dealings started in early 2019, when KSAT-12 TV filed reports stating that Josh Balk had taken money from clients and not performed the work. The reporting also suggested that he funneled $30,000 into Linda Balk’s successful campaign during the runoff election in May of 2018. The case was investigated by the Texas Rangers and the prosecution is being handled by the Texas Attorney General’s Office. That work ultimately led to Josh Balk’s indictment in Guadalupe County on Sept. 5.
Both Guadalupe County Sheriff Arnold Zwicke and Guadalupe County Attorney Dave Willborn turned the case over to the outside agencies, to remove any potential political conflicts from the case.
The indictment suggests there were several business owners who were victimized by Josh Balk’s construction company. One of the most vocal victims was not only a client, but she is also Linda Balk’s first cousin. The business woman, who asked that her full name and her business’ name not be included in the story, says she runs successful operations, including a location in the city of Cibolo. The woman, who we will identify as Ms. Hernandez, says Josh and Linda Balk were family and they were someone she trusted. She says she now understands that her trust was misplaced, because she took out a $125,000 loan and hired Josh Balk to complete construction work on her new location in Cibolo. Hernandez spoke to us about the situation earlier this summer, before the indictment was issued. Hernandez says he promised that he would be able to complete the work in a couple months and said she would be able to order the equipment that was needed to get the place opened on schedule, so she could begin doing business. She says that never happened.
“I was introduced to him through my cousin, Linda Balk. We are firstcousins, and because of that, I trusted him and her. I will say I didn’t do any homework (on him) only because…I believed in him and her, and I never thought that they would do any harm,” said Hernandez. Hernandez says the work started slowly and tapered off from there. Meanwhile, she says Balk kept asking for draws from her loan. She says she trusted him to get the job done, but she says he never used that money on her building. She says she starting trying to track him down once the work stopped.
“I’m letting him know, literally, almost daily, ‘Hey look (Josh). I have equipment here. It’s sitting here. I have bills to pay. I’m a single mom of four. I cannot afford this. You said (the work would be done by) this time, and it’s past that time,'”
Hernandez says she told Josh Balk. She said he would always come back with a story.
“He’s like, ‘don’t worry. You’re not the only one I’m working on.’ And he would get kind of aggressive.”
As weeks went by, Hernandez says she started to realize that not only wasn’t Josh Balk doing any work, but he also wasn’t apparently paying the subcontractors that he had hired early on in the process. Hernandez says she had no idea that they money she had paid to Josh Balk was not being used to pay his sub-contractors on the job. She says she also didn’t realize how little he had actually done overall on the project, until she asked another
contractor to take a look.
“I had another contractor, that was a client of mine, come in…and I said look, how much labor and material is put into this building. And he was like, ‘honestly…there’s maybe $15,000 (here), if not less,’” Hernandez said in relaying the story.
Hernandez says that she went on to tell this other contractor that she had already paid Josh Balk $106,000. She says that she was surprised by his response to her answer. “He goes,’Josh Balk owes me money from two different jobs. I have two hot checks in my pocket that cannot go through,'” Hernandez claims that he told her.
Hernandez says she tried time and time again to get Josh Balk to complete the work, or to return the money. She says she got nothing but lies and excuses. She says she finally had enough and decided to see if her cousin, Linda Balk, could help get to the bottom of the situation.
“I said ‘Linda, you are my cousin. I want you to come to my clinic and stand in here and tell me if there’s $106,000 put into this building, that I’ve paid your husband. What is he doing with my money?’ Hernandez said she asked.
According to Hernandez, her cousin became defensive of her husband. She says that Linda Balk said “look, he’s my husband and I’m to believe h im until proven otherwise.”
Hernandez says Linda Balk’s reaction made her more angry because she said that she had no reason to lie to her cousin, and she had documentation to back up her claims. Hernandez says she thinks that Linda Balk knew what was going on, that she knew he was funneling money into her campaign, and that Linda Balk was directly or indirectly benefitting from the Josh’s clients. Hernandez, by this time, says knew there were several other people who had similar experiences with Josh Balk. Hernandez tells KWED and the Seguin Daily news that she was hurt and angry by this situation, especially after she saw the couple making posts on Facebook about their lifestyle and all while she was struggling to figure out how she could recover from the money she says she lost to him, while also borrowing more money, and hiring a new contractor to finish the work that he promised.
“While all of this was happening…him and Linda take a trip to I think it was Mexico or something. They were gone for about a week or two. He told us that ‘I’m going to be gone out of town. We are going to be on a vacation, that we planned over a year ago’ — is what he said. He (also) got a nice grill on his truck…I said this is completely unfair. I went to her and even though she’s a public official, she’s (also) my family
and I can’t even trust her. How is our county supposed to rely and trust her,” said Hernandez.
The indictment indicates that there are up to 15 clients who lost money by hiring Josh Balk. Hernandez says sadly, he was still getting work after the story broke earlier this year. She says she came forward with her story, because she wanted to stop him from taking advantage of other people.
“They took away from my livelihood. They took away from my kids. And that doesn’t work for me,” said Hernandez.
To be fair, it should be again stressed that Josh Balk is the only one charged with any criminal activity in this case, but Hernandez says she thinks her cousin, the elected official, deserves some of the blame. She says it’s pretty clear that Linda Balk’s campaign was, at least partially, funded by money that was supposed to go towards jobs like hers.
“I feel she should — and I shouldn’t even say this — she should resign, or she can admit, apologize and somehow take care of those victims in any kind of way,” said Hernandez. Linda Balk is not resigning and she’s not apologizing. When asked to respond to the indictment and some of her cousin’s claims, she sent the following statement:
“The charges filed against my husband are frivolous, without merit, and politically motivated. There are those in Guadalupe County who believe that if you can’t win at the ballot box you should have free reign to misuse the criminal system and court system to achieve their political aims and that is the case here. While my husband’s business and my role as the District Clerk of Guadalupe County are totally separate, I stand by my husband and have no doubt that he will be exonerated. I appreciate so much the hundreds of people who see this for exactly what it is and who have told me they are standing firmly at my side as my family fights back against this grave injustice.”
When asked if she had any intention to resign Linda Balk replied: “Of course not!”
It should be noted that not all of the claims against Josh Balk were made by Guadalupe County residents, and it’s not clear what the political motivation would have been for those who live outside of the county. That’s something that wasn’t addressed by Linda Balk’s statement.